This is a discussion on Strange oil leak near driver's side 2004 WRX within the General Maintenance, Troubleshooting & Accidents. forums, part of the Tech & Modifying & General Repairs category; Hi guys! I got my first WRX about a month ago (I know, i know, where are the pictures?! Very ...

Strange oil leak near driver's side 2004 WRX

Hi guys! I got my first WRX about a month ago (I know, i know, where are the pictures?! Very soon!) and I came across something under the engine that I wasn't quite sure of.

There's a black plastic cover across the front of the engine, parallel to the engine radiator (I believe to protect the pulleys) that I'm referring to. More specifically, the region on the driver's side, between the yellow engine fuel cap and the coolant reservoir. And, there is small amount of oil leaking under this plastic. I cleaned it off after I took the pictures and it looks like the plastic cover is a two-piece, and whenever I put pressure using my hands to try and seal it better, there is small amount of oil seeping through the two pieces.

Should I be worried about this? Before I got the car, the dealership replaced the timing belts and did an oil change. Could there be oil trapped in the black plastic cover? Thanks ClubWRX community!

Guys I'm hoping it just some excess oil spill rather than bad cam seal. I checked to see if there was oil after I cleaned it and it looked clean after driving it around for about 30 minutes. But, what's not making sense to me is that I've been checking the oil level in the morning for the past few days now and it's consistently reading at the low level on the dipstick. I'm going to change the oil soon even though the dealer just changed it a few 1000 miles ago. Who knows what/how much they put in there, and its been bothering me since!

Guys I'm hoping it just some excess oil spill rather than bad cam seal. I checked to see if there was oil after I cleaned it and it looked clean after driving it around for about 30 minutes. But, what's not making sense to me is that I've been checking the oil level in the morning for the past few days now and it's consistently reading at the low level on the dipstick. I'm going to change the oil soon even though the dealer just changed it a few 1000 miles ago. Who knows what/how much they put in there, and its been bothering me since!

Oil in turbo WRX just "disappears". Expect it, plan for it, don't let it run low, but, don't worry about it unless it is a lot. Not sure about the new dipsticks, but from high to low is only .5 quarts on mine. Adding one quart per oil change is FAR from unreasonable on this particular platform.

Don't change your oil for no reason - just top it up.

"From a little spark may burst a mighty flame." - Dante
"The stitch is lost unless the thread is knotted." - Italian proverb

So after a few more days of driving I looked under the car and found no signs of oil. Thank you guys for suggesting that it was probably just spilled oil because I will leave it that! My car has about 67000 miles and everything is stock that I can imagine (exhaust, intake, up/down pipe, etc..)

I did change the O2 sensor today. Car lived Colorado most of its life and I'm not sure of the quality of fuel there (or anywhere for that matter!) or how it may have affected it.

That looks like a really clean car. They are getting hard to find unmolested with low miles like that.

The sensors seem to go out ~100K, so that is pretty normal given the long time span as well. My '03 is about to turn over 100K and I'm kind of expecting that to go soon. I don't think it will come out as easy as yours looks to have.

"From a little spark may burst a mighty flame." - Dante
"The stitch is lost unless the thread is knotted." - Italian proverb

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